Organization:

Objectives:

On 14 October 2005, the Council of Ministers approved the “Programme to stimulate knowledge transfer in areas of strategic importance”. This Programme marks a new phase in the programme of action dedicated to promoting closer relationships between research and development, including stronger cooperative ties between universities and specialist sectorial centres. The first phase of this action programme, referred to as “Technology attraction poles” (TAP), was launched in 2002.

The Programme follows on from the “Programme of Scientific Support for Standardisation and Technical Regulations” (1998 – 2003) which sought to promote Belgian involvement in all activities relating to standardisation and European technical regulations, thereby enabling Belgium to play a larger role in the process of European standardisation.

In this new phase, the “Programme to stimulate knowledge transfer in areas of strategic importance” seeks to reinforce the dynamics of innovation by capitalising on research potential developed at the national scale.

This pluriannual impulse programme is based on the development and utilisation of scientific and technological knowledge that will give rise to methods, processes and tools capable of generating innovation in the industrial sector at the national scale.

In addition to the areas covered by the TAP programme, the new phase has been widened to include two additional areas, namely clean technologies and new materials.

- stimulate the transfer of knowledge and research results to all socio-economic and environmental sectors, enabling them to make the most of available opportunities according to their constraints and specific needs, and thereby bring about the benefits of innovation;

- promote and support Belgian involvement in all international - and especially European - activities in these areas to ensure that Belgium plays an active role in ongoing developments, notably in the establishment of European or international codes and standards.

Description:

The first three areas are placed under federal competencies. The last two areas - clean technologies and new materials - are covered by a cooperation agreement between the Federal Authority and the Regions.

Research carried out under this Programme must:

- take account of the needs of potential users;
- be innovative in character;
- constitute major axes for the integration of Belgium at the European level;
- adhere to the guidelines of applicable national and European legislation in the sector(s) addressed by the project;
- be justified by socio-economic and environmental grounds for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of the project on one hand, and to predict outcomes and impacts on innovation, the environment and socio-economic aspects on the other;
- produce concrete and usable results in a relatively short timeframe.

Each project will be undertaken by an interdisciplinary network composed of 3 to 4 funded teams, each network including at least:

- one university institution,
- a collective research centre (De Groote Centre or equivalent),
- one Dutch-speaking partner and one French-speaking partner, so that the issues can be addressed at the national scale.

Research projects:

P2/01:
An Aluminium Alloy Improved by the ECAP Processing and Shaped by the Incremental Forming SPIF (ALECASPIF)